A Life in Moments
by StoryDiva
Summary: Set before, during, and after the movie as Caleb tries to come to terms with his powers and the role they'll play in his life. Mentions of CalebSarah. Written for yuletide challenge.


**A Life in Moments**

**_In the Beginning…_**

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Caleb glanced over at his three best friends, his brothers in this secret that they carried, and tried his best to keep his expression neutral. He was sick of being the guy who had to remind them of taking precautions, of playing it safe with their powers. He was sick of seeing his friends roll their eyes at him and Pogue telling him "to live a little."

But someone had to be the voice of reason. Someone had to remind them that using their powers recklessly now would only make it harder when each of them Ascended, would only bring each of them that much closer to ending up like Caleb's father. And somewhere along the line, Caleb had been appointed their leader, the one who had all the answers (rarely) and who pulled them back from the edge (at least he tried).

Reid, as usual, was the one to call him out on it. The damn power usage tug-of-war was about as fundamental to his relationship with Reid as their ancestral history.

"Not this again," Reid said. He fingered the collar of his jacket and added, "What's the point of having powers if we never use them?"

"There's using your powers and pulling stupid stunts for no particular reason," Caleb countered. The neutral expression on his face washed away and a frown emerged. He crossed his arms protectively across his chest and said, "We have to be careful. We're all getting close to our Ascensions and the pull to use magic is going to get that much harder to control. We've got to stick together in this if we're all going to get through it. Remember our pact?"

Reid matched Caleb's frown and responded, "The pact…the stupid pact we made when we were thirteen and your mother locked us in the room with your dad."

"Yeah, and we saw up close what messing with that kind of power does to a person. And we _all_ decided to make that pact to keep us from ending up like that," Caleb replied.

"Whatever, man. That thing is stupid now and you…"

Pogue placed a hand on Reid's chest as Reid stepped closer to Caleb. He snapped, "Cut it out, Reid."

"I'm just saying, we made that pact when we were thirteen and under duress."

Caleb sighed. He said, "You think _that_ was duress? Man, you've got no idea what real compulsion is like. Wait until you've got so much power rushing through you that you think you'll die if you can't use it. Wait until the energy is bursting in your veins and you feel completely high and lost." Caleb paused and met the gazes of his three friends. He placed his hand on Pogue's shoulder – the one least likely to see it as a condescending move – before he continued, "I'm sick of being the bad guy here. We all know what will happen to us if we go down that path."

"You're not the bad guy," Tyler offered.

Reid rolled his eyes and said, "More like the annoying angel voice on our shoulder that I want to stomp into the ground."

Caleb laughed and said, "Whatever, man. Do what you want. I don't know why I bother."

"Because you have a hero complex. If you weren't one of my best friends, I'd have to beat the shit out of you for it," Reid said before turning toward the school library. He glanced around the area for any sign of passersby and then grinned at his friends.

Caleb watched as Reid's eyes glowed red for a moment and he jumped onto the roof. Reid let out a whoop and a howl as he moved along the roof of the building.

Tyler glanced at Caleb with a small smile, but then he was jumping onto the roof and joining Reid in his ridiculous prancing.

Caleb placed his hand on Pogue's arm and said, "We're going to get caught."

"No one is going to be able to see us up there."

"It's not a good idea."

"It's a little fun, Caleb. It won't kill us, man."

"Not yet, but…"

Pogue patted Caleb on the shoulder with a smile and said, "Focus on the 'not yet' and get your ass up there."

Caleb watched Pogue join the others on the roof of the library and then glanced around the immediate area. His friends disappeared out of his line of vision and he knew that no one would be able to find them…but something in his gut told him it was a bad idea.

He muttered under his breath and jumped up onto the roof with ease. His powers had been getting stronger with each passing day. Every morning he saw the look on his mother's face and listened to her remind him of the fate that awaited him if he didn't wise up.

It was why he wanted to get away, get to Harvard and try for a normal life. He didn't want to become his father. He knew his friends didn't want to end up that way either…but staying there, allowing Reid and the others to cajole him into these things, could only end badly.

Reid and Pogue tackled him, and when the laughter and power emanated out of him, he couldn't imagine leaving his friends, his brothers, behind.

They just had to find some sort of balance. There had to be a way to enjoy their power without getting lost in their thrall. After all, centuries of witches had managed to do it.

Caleb pried free of his friends' holds on him and sat up. He glanced out into the night sky of the small town below him. He felt alive and free as he and his friends sat and watched the world pass them by well into the early hours of the morning.

**_In the Middle…_**

Caleb had met the girl of his dreams.

Sarah.

Beautiful and fun and smart. She made his heart race and his chest tighten and he never felt so at ease except when he was using his powers.

It was as though he had known her forever, at least longer than the week or so they had spent together, and he felt like he could tell her everything about him and she wouldn't judge, wouldn't care that he had this dark side to him that could swallow her up if he wasn't careful.

He didn't say anything though. He and his friends had a pact, a brotherhood born from a secret that they protected beyond everything else. Pogue kept it from Kate and Reid and Tyler kept it from their girls of the moment and Caleb had to keep it from Sarah.

Instead he found himself acting like a stalker, leering in her direction and coming up with ways to spend more time with her.

If he wasn't doing that, he was thinking about her smile or the way she smelled like raspberries and vanilla or the sound she made when she laughed.

He would've disgusted himself if he wasn't so completely caught up in thoughts of _Sarah, Sarah,_ and _Sarah_.

The only problem was that he had met her at the most inopportune time. He didn't have time for love and getting swept up in moments with the right girl. He had to stay focused. His Ascension was rapidly approaching and things were completely out of control with his friends. Reid was up to something, Tyler followed Reid's lead blindly, and both Caleb and Pogue had been visited by darklings.

None of that equated to time for him to breathe, let alone spend hours lost in thought about Sarah.

But he couldn't help himself. Sometimes, as much as he loved his powers and his friends, he would've given anything to be normal. He would've loved to have no powers to worry about, and to be able to walk away from his role as the nag amongst his friends. And being with Sarah, as stupid as he knew it was, made him feel that way a little bit.

For once, it wasn't about his powers. He wasn't Caleb Danvers, one of the sons of Ipswich. He was just a guy who had fallen for the new girl.

"Man, you need to lay off Reid a little," Pogue stated. He waved his hand in front of Caleb's face and asked, "Are you even listening to me?"

"What?" Caleb pulled his gaze away from where Sarah and Kate were sitting in class. He turned to Pogue and said, "Yeah, sure, lay off Reid."

Pogue chuckled under his breath and said, "You're so gone, man."

Caleb scowled and said, "And I can't lay off Reid if it's him using all those powers. He's going to get himself killed."

"Reid wouldn't be hiding it. He'd be flaunting it in your face just to get a reaction out of you," Pogue countered.

Caleb couldn't deny the truth of that statement. The powers that were being used didn't feel like Reid either. There was a much more subtle and malevolent feel to the energy that had awoken him from his sleep the other night. But if it wasn't Reid, then Caleb didn't even know how to begin to deal with what was going on.

Caleb sighed. He kept his eyes on the professor as he went on about the Napoleonic Wars and tried to wrap his brain around the thought that there was an unknown force out there with serious powers.

"I know something's up and it has you worried. I'm worried too, but taking it out on Reid won't solve anything except to push him into doing something stupid," Pogue said.

Caleb nodded. "You're right, and I'm not in the mood to play Reid's babysitter."

"I know you're the first to Ascend and that we've always sort of appointed you our leader, but you've got to lighten up. Reid's going to do what he's always done."

"It's not even about Reid," Caleb whispered when the professor glanced in his and Pogue's direction. He tilted his head toward Pogue and added, "The darkling and the magic in the air have left a really bad feeling in my gut."

"All the more reason for the four of us to be united in this."

Caleb caught Sarah glancing up at him and he smiled in her direction. He heard Pogue chuckle again and he said, "Shut up."

"You're so gone."

"I like her," Caleb stated.

"I think you more than like her, man. You're completely lost in the world of Sarah."

"Who was the one who spent a whole day talking about the texture of Kate's hair before? Oh, that was you," Caleb countered.

Pogue stopped chuckling and said, "No need to get pissed off. I think it's a good thing, man."

"Thanks," Caleb replied. He ducked his head when Sarah and Kate both caught him staring in their direction. He groaned and said, "Just shoot me if I start going on about her hair."

"It was one time."

Caleb laughed silently until he noticed that Chase was watching him and Pogue intently. He nodded his head in Chase's direction, but he couldn't ignore the dread that coursed through him as he did so. There was definitely something off about the new guy.

**_In the End…_**

Caleb Danvers was having one hell of a month.

First, he and his friends were the targets of the missing Ipswich ancestor, a power-hungry freak hell-bent on destroying everyone Caleb cared about. If Caleb didn't have enough of a warning in the form of his father, Chase was the perfect example of what could happen when someone got too lost in his powers. At some point, Chase had crossed a line and he could never return from it…and to Chase, getting more power was all that mattered, despite who it hurt or what it cost him in the end.

Then there was his Ascension, which was filled with pain and terror and no time to process anything because of the power-hungry freak. If he could explain the actual moment he ascended, it would involve obscenities and teeth grinding against each other to somehow ease the intense ache of pain. But Caleb found that the pain of the actual Ascension was nothing compared to the daily battle he faced against the energy coursing through him every second of every hour of every day. He was tempted to use it all the time, for the simple things that he never considered needing magic for in the past.

Then, he inherited his father's powers in order to stop Chase. The pain that it had caused in those moments was nothing compared to the overwhelming want he felt as the power surged through him. It took every ounce of willpower Caleb possessed not to let go and use magic for everything. It would be so easy, damn the consequences…but he couldn't. He saw what that choice did to his father and also to his mother, who could only stand back and watch it happen.

And there was Sarah to think of. He couldn't let Sarah become a mirror image of his mother, couldn't condemn her to that sadness or life. She had already endured way too much because of who he was. He would be damned if he brought her any more misery because of his powers. Even though she hadn't blamed him, he had sworn to himself that magic would never harm her again.

And then there were his friends. Both Pogue and Kate made full recoveries, but even Reid looked weary from the situation with Chase. It made them all think. It could just as easily have been one of them that ended up like Chase, completely lost to the allure of magic and its power.

Caleb would never admit it aloud, but if there was a bright side to the ordeal with Chase, it was that Reid and the others seemed to finally understand what could happen if they weren't careful.

Reid was the one who insisted they repeat the pact made when they were thirteen.

"Would you stop staring at me like that?" Reid snapped.

Caleb blinked a few times, unaware he had been watching Reid, and focused his gaze on the ground. He said, "Sorry. It just surprises me that you're the one who wants to re-establish our pact."

"Yeah, well," Reid paused and cleared his throat. Caleb watched Reid as he glanced around their small circle and said, "We're in this together, right? Not just protecting each other from what we could become, but from other freaks out there like Chase...so I thought we should be clear about where our loyalties stand."

Caleb sighed. He darted a look at Pogue and said, "I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry I thought you were the one using at first."

"I would've thought the same thing," Reid said with a shrug.

"Are you guys gonna kiss and make up already? I'm still recovering from an accident and my hip hurts like hell," Pogue commented.

Caleb clapped Pogue on the back and said, "You have such a way with words. It's no wonder Kate loves you so much."

Pogue groaned and said, "Well, not all of us get to be the knight-in-shining-armor."

Reid chuckled and said, "He has a point there, Caleb. Sarah practically swoons when you walk into a room these days."

"And from what we can tell, the feeling is mutual," Tyler added with a laugh.

Caleb held up his hands in mock surrender and said, "How did we get on this topic? Weren't we here for a reason?"

"If you can't share the details of your love life with your friends, who can you?" Reid asked.

Caleb rolled his eyes. "So the pact…I'm in."

"Me too," Pogue said.

"And me," Tyler said.

Reid nodded and the four of them sat down in a small circle. They closed their eyes, repeating the words of the pact from memory. It surprised Caleb that his friends remembered it so well, considering he had spent the last few years feeling like the only one it still mattered to.

When they were done with the small ritual, Caleb stood up and helped Pogue to his feet. He glanced around the room at his friends and, for the first time in months, felt like he could handle his future. Magic and power were only a part of him. He was also a friend, a boyfriend, and a regular guy who would do anything to protect the people he loved.

And he was okay with that.

_Fin_


End file.
